Tim Cook gets grumpy as greedy stockholders question green policies

Cook will stay green and climate change sceptics won't like him when he's angry

Apple CEO Tim Cook has reacted angrily to suggestions the company should abandon environmentally-friendly projects, if they have an adverse effect on profits.

The usually-level-headed Cook told one climate-change denying shareholder to 'get out of this stock' if they expected Apple to lessen its growing reliance on green energy and the production of green products

Cook rejected out of hand a proposal from the right-wing Think Tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), which suggested Apple disclose how much it spends on its initiatives and whether they undermined the bottom line.

"We do a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive," Cook said response to the proposal at a shareholder meeting. "We want to leave the world better than we found it."

Surrender?

The NCPPR's general council Justin Danhof had argued that Apple shouldn't be following government-mandated environmental standards, and should instead be fighting such measures.

He wrote: "We object to increased government control over company products and operations, and likewise mandatory environmental standards," wrote NCPPR general counsel Justin Danhof in a statement.

"This is something [Apple] should be actively fighting, not preparing surrender."

The majority of Apple shareholders agreed with Cook's sentiment, with the measure voted down by a whopping 97 per cent.

As interesting as Cook's standing up to a large shareholder so aggressively is the aggression itself. It was a rare show of fire from the calm and collected anti-Jobs who now leads Apple.